THE WEALTH OE NATIONS.

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sudden to be ascribed to any change in the value of silver,which is always slow and gradual. The suddenness of theeffect can be accounted for only by a cause which can ope-rate suddenly, the accidental variation of the seasons.

The money price of labour in Great Britain has, indeed,risen during the course of the present century. This, how-ever, seems to be the effect, not so much of any diminutionin .the value of silver in the European market, as of an in-crease in the demand for labour in Great Britain , arising fromthe great and almost universal prosperity of the country. InFrance , a country not altogether so prosperous, the moneyprice of labour has, since the middle of the last century, beenobserved to sink gradually with the average money price ofcorn. Both in the last century and in the present, the day-wages of common labour are there said to have been prettyuniformly about the twentieth part of the average price ofthe septier of wheat, a measure which contains a little morethan four Winchester bushels. In Great Britain the real re-compense of labour, it has already been shewn, the real quan-tities of the necessaries and conveniencies of life which aregiven to the labourer, has increased considerably during thecourse of the present century. The rise in its money priceseems to have been the effect, not of any diminution of thevalue of silver in the general market of Europe , but of a risein the real price of labour in the particular market of GreatBritain , owing to the peculiarly happy circumstances of thecountry.

For some time after the first discovery of America, silverwould continue to sell at its former, or not much below itsformer price. The profits of mining would for some time bevery great, and much above their natural rate. Those whoimported that metal into Europe , however, would soon findthat the whole annual importation could not be disposed ofat this high price. Silver would gradually exchange for asmaller and a smaller quantity of goods. Its price wouldsink gradually lower and lower till it fell to its natural price;or to what was just sufficient to pay, according to their na-tural rates, the wages of the labour, the profits of the stock,and the rent of the land, which must be paid in order to bringit from the mine to the market. In the greater part of thesilver mines of Peru, the tax of the king of Spain , amountingto a tenth of the gross produce, eats up, it has already beenobserved, the whole rent of the land. This tax was origi-